Hey guys,
Just bought 2 switches (NETGEAR FM726 v2) and Im trying to reset them to default settings as I can’t figure out the ip that is beeing handled to them, and I cant get anything in the putty console.
Can it be the cheap serial to usb cable that I bought from ebay?
mmm, I had some really bad experiences with all NetGear products, their firmware is really shit, their support is really shit. Once I posted a solution on support forums it was deleted. If it isn’t the cable, you may be in over your head and mite want to return em?
Remembered a funny story; shortly after I bought my netgear switch, a few routers and a repeater, I returned the repeater and switch but kept the routers. I flashed their firmware with OpenWRT and the routers worked fine, so I posted a “How To” on their forums because many users were running into the same problems I’d been having, but my post was deleted 
.
Anyway, I haven’t used any of their products in 4 years, maybe I am wrong, maybe things have changed.
Bought them because they were cheap, as Im planning to host a lanparty.
They direct the traffic and such, as I can get several ip’s trough the switches, but I can’t figure out the ip of the switch itself.
That’s why I am trying to access it trough console. 
Are you able to connect a linux box to the switch and enable DHCP? If the switches are grabbing a dynamic address then if you connect only the switch you can just check the lease information and grab the MAC address of that port.
Unless these are layer 3 switches running DHCP themselves? If that’s the case i think the only solution is a hard reset if it all possible. You might have to open the case and pull the CMOS battery to do that though.
Do you have the manual? Some switches can be reset to default without accessing the console. I had a HP switch which could be reset by connecting two ports together while powering on or something like that.
Yes, hosts connected to the switch are grabbing dynamic addresses. I just can’t figure out wich ip is beeing handled to the switch itself.
The switches have a mac adress on the back. Is that the mac addr you are refering to?
So if the switch is doing DHCP you should just be able to run either “ipconfig” or “ifconfig” on a Windows or Linux client to get the IP of the DHCP server. I believe that switches have a MAC address for each port, but don’t quote me on that.
Just check the manual? For serial ports, the baud rate needs to be right, etc. It is all in the manual (page 21).
The console port is configured to use the following settings:
• Baud rate: 9,600 bps
• Data bits: 8
• Parity: none
• Stop bit: 1
• Flow control: none
Edit: Actually linked the right manual
Edit: According to the Installation Manual, there is a reset button on the front panel. To the left, just under the NETGEAR name.
Bah, derp, it is just a power switch, not an actual reset. Effing netgear…
This recessed button on the front panel once pushed will perform a hardware reset of the switch. This is equivalent to power-cycle the switch. The reset will not change any of the switch’s configuration, nor will it save any changes to the configuration. Please do not push this button if you’re in the middle of downloading a new firmware.
Another edit:
I use an Aten USB to serial adapter, the UC232A. Works with switches etc. Startech also has one that has good rep (ICUSB232V2 IIRC). Get one of those if the one you have doesn’t work.
Also, looks like you can password protect the console. Soo if the web-interfance is also password protected, you need console access to get into the switch. There is some key-combo to press when it boots to access some basic menu, looks like ctrl-D and ctrl-C as per this thread:
Already tried every baud rate I could find. No single char comes from the switch console.
I can easily get the DHCP server ip. I just cant get the ip of the switch itself.
The ip doesn’t even lists on my dhcp client list.
And they say in the manual that if the switch doesnt get an ip from the dhcp server it gets the default 192.168.0.1 . As I put my self in that network with my ip beeing 192.168.0.2, even with this I can’t ping to it! :\
I would try to make sure the USB to serial cable works, test it with something else optimally. Alternatively get one of the two I mentioned, the Aten UC232A has worked well for me. Actually used it today with my home switch.
Sounds like it is configured differently then (or not working). Need to try to get the console working then, not many other options I’m afraid :-/
Or well, probably possible to connect cables to every port and sniff all the packets coming from there, etc. But could be very time consuming, not really worth it.
I’ve tested the cable with a loopback (clip jumping the pins) and it works ok.
Also tried this and nothing!
Let me expand on this a bit as the above is a bit silly/incorrect. It is pretty common to limit the access to a switch web interface by putting it on it’s own network and VLAN. Some switches are locked to the default VLAN 1 for this, others are configurable. If it is configurable, that means the Web interface can blocked on most ports and most VLANs. So you don’t just need to connect to the correct port, you need to be on the correct VLAN and on the correct network. Can be hard to find :-/
I would try the first port and the last port, try the common private IP nets etc and hope it is on the default VLAN. That is if I can’t get the console to work, some kind of last resort.
That sounds bad :-/
Is it powering up okay? Check the manual to see if there is some sequence to the lights on the front, some switches can give you info on if they have booted correctly by those lights. Plug stuff in to it, try to route traffic over it and see what happens, check link lights etc.
But ofc it could just be broken, no console is usually a bad sign.
The switches are doing their job, as all the machines I connect to them get an ip. I just cant get to any control system, either web or console.
For anyone interested I’ve found a solution.
All I needed was a null modem cable with no hardware handshaking.
Thanks.